Just received a CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE...

...from TripAdvisor. Yip!I get stickers for my window and an actual certificate for framing. Thankyou to everyone who writes nice things about me and votes for me. I appreciate it very much.

Cakes for happy days

Last week I made a lot of cake. Mum had a wedding at Lunga and three 'pudding cakes' were required - cakes that can be cut ceremoniously but eaten as a pudding. Don't know about anyone else, but I hate fruit cake. And I hate marzipan and I hate rock hard royal icing, and how everyone always politely moves the constituent parts around their plates to make it look like they really are eating Christmas cake by another name.

Anyway, the groom was Irish, the bride Scottish and they lived in America, so we came up with the idea of  a chocolate guinness cake, a Cranachan sponge and a lemon and apricot cake with Philadelphia cream to drizzle. And even though I say so myself, these were gods of cakes. Mum did the finishing touches at Lunga and they were served with huge bowls of strawberries, chocolate ganache sauce and lightly whipped double cream. And not a single bit of Royal Icing in sight!

This Charming Wedding features our vintage hen party

A huge thankyou to This Charming Wedding for featuring Fiona's fab vintage hen party. We had huge fun and laughter on the night and Nick Kirk's fabulous 'in the spirit' photography has really captured the occassion.

So thanks to Fiona for being such a worthy winner; to Nick Kirk for being seriously cool; and to This Charming Wedding for telling Fiona's engagement story so well!

To find out more information about Nick's photography you can contact Nick by email on weddings@dkphotography.co.uk, by phone on 0141 286 1188 (UK) or you can take a look at his website NDK Wedding Photography / blog.

Lavender button shortbread

Mum's been baking. Lavender button shortbread. Which will be coming here soon! Mum uses a lot of herbs in her baking, and I do too. This time of year is perfect, I think, for experimenting. Basil or sage sugars; lemon balm in lemon posset; orange thyme in chocolate.

This time of year it really is fun to take some favourite recipes and play a little. Love it.

Love is in the air..

Our romantic revival is taking shape..

A lot of baking is being done...

...because the weekend is nearly here. Cup cakes for eating, and displaying in our lovely china tea cups;

upside down pear cake; gluten free chocolate orange cake; apple and date flapjacks. My goodness my kitchen smells delicious. DELICIOUS.

The Hidden Lane loves weddings. Truly

The Hidden Lane is a community of fabulous artistic creative people. Chatting recently over tea and cake (a blueberry ring cake with vanilla syrup, to be specific), we realised that, individually, quite a few of us are part of the wedding world. We've got photographers, ring makers, a vintage wedding dress and bespoke wedding dress designer, a china cup cake wedding cake maker and hirer of vintage crockery (that would be me), a stationer, an awesome picture framer, a wedding caterer and a florist. And that's just for starters.

Moving onto the wine - it had been a long afternoon - we realised that we could (wedding:-) band together to create a fabulous little weddingy community where brides + grooms + friends + mums + those of a curious disposition could physically come and meet us and see what we do and seek inspiration not just online but in the real world of people working together to make beautiful weddingy things.

And so The Hidden Lane Loves Weddings is born. Here in the Tearoom, you will be able to browse samples of peoples works - we'll work to a monthly theme of either colour or concept - you can even have part/all of your hen party here, if you fancy. We already have some lovely little Mr and Mrs things from the fabulous Charlotte Macey (www.charlottemacey.co.uk)and will be adding all sorts of cute things from wheresoever we find them.

As a taster of lovely and happy and exciting things to come, some of us worked together this week on a bit of a photoshoot that was a whole lot of fun. Pammy, who works here in the tearoom, volunteered to be our model for the day. Lisa, from Dragonfly design, re-worked the most beautiful vintage dress for her, along with a lovely lovely fun headpiece and silver grey silk bow with butterflies. Vintage lace gloves finished off the look. Another Lisa, this time from Sparrow andRose, supplied the bouquet of white roses, white phlox, rosemary and dill (the perfume, the perfume!) with vintage lace to bind.

I supplied the china cupcake wedding cake - which was devoured not long after the shoot (Well, a girl's got to eat), and photography was by Carole Fitzgerald of Fishnets and Stalkings, and Alan Scobie and James Morrison of The Hidden Lane Photography. The photos here are Carole's (that would be my wonderful mother!) and Alan and James' will be following shortly.

The venue was the fabulous Hidden Lane Gallery, a stunningly arty and beautifully crafted studio which is very much a part of The Hidden Lane Community although entry to it is off Argyle Street. Thanks Jo, for lending us the space.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this introduction to our new collective venture here at The Hidden Lane. We've nearly got our own website up and running but remember - The Hidden Lane Loves Weddings is primarily a community of

real people showcasing their fabulous skills in the real world. I LOVE IT!

Lovely lovely crockery

When I opened The Hidden Lane Tearoom, my grandad raided every single charity shop for vintage teasets and teapots to compliment my own collection of crockery that I had been building up just because I loved it. The delicate patterns; the prettiness; the etiquette.

So now I have lots and lots. I'm always grateful to people who drop by with the odd bits and pieces for me and I swap my shelves around every day, so that no teacup ever has to endure that left on the shelf, wallflower feeling.

I've recently started hiring out my crockery for weddings and for tea parties. But mostly, I let people drink tea and eat cake from china bits and pieces that make me happy. My teacups do, however, make lovely lovely vases.